Galleons and Sickles and Knuts - Oh my!
by dancer4813
Summary: Hermione Granger's first foray into the Wizarding World, as accompanied by her mother and father and one Professor Minerva McGonagall. Experience the wonders of Diagon Alley through her mother's eyes.


Mrs. Jane Granger (or, officially, Doctor Jane Granger) was very much overwhelmed.

"Five _sickles_?" she asked, repeating the lady's words. "And nine _galleons_?"

It was time to pay for their first wizard purchase (a standard package of first year robes) and already, Mrs. Granger was having difficulty with the Wizarding currency. Why couldn't wizard simply use the good old pence and pound like the rest of the United Kingdom?

"The silver ones are the sickles, Mum," Hermione reminded her, pulling one out of the coin purse and holding it up. "And the gold are galleons. It's easy to remember with alliteration."

"Thanks dear," Mrs. Granger sighed, wondering how in the world her daughter had remembered even that. Not that her little Hermione wasn't smart, because she was. Hermione was the top of her class, always receiving the highest marks and seeking to gain even more knowledge after the necessaries were out of the way. Just that learning you were a witch that could do _magic_ (part of an entire race that had kept themselves secret for _years_, mind you) and then going with one of your future professors to a very magical shopping district to get the very magical supplies for this school of _Witchcraft and Wizardry_ you would be attending seemed to be enough to fill one's head without worrying about an entirely new currency on top of that. It was certainly taking its toll on Mrs. Granger, but her daughter and, to an extent, her husband continued lapping up new knowledge like starving dogs that would never be filled.

She opened the bag with the many Wizarding coins in it. Only three different coins, and all of them very different from the pence and pounds she was used to. Honestly, why in the world was it seventeen knuts - or was is gnats? - to a sickle and twenty-nine sickles to a galleon? Or was it the other way around, with twenty-nine knuts to a sickle and seventeen sickles to a galleon? Admittedly, the Muggle world had started with twelve pence to a shilling and twenty shillings to a pound, but just twenty years prior they had decimalised the currency to multiples of five and ten, similar to the American dollar. It was far easier in her opinion.

She counted out the coins, feeling a bit tired, and passed them across the counter.

"So the robes with be ready in about an hour," Madam Malkin informed them as she put the money in the till. "You can pick them up anytime after that, just call one of us up to the front and we can get them for you!"

The Grangers gave her their thanks and left the store, still accompanied by Professor McGonagall - the Transfiguration Professor at what would soon be Hermione's school.

"To Potage's Cauldron shop and the apothecary next, I think," Professor McGonagall said, examining the street around them. "Ollivanders seems to be quite busy and from what I've seen and heard, if we bring Miss Granger into Flourish and Blotts now there will be no way to remove her."

"A bookshop," Professor McGonagall said, in answer to their unasked question. "And we're picking up your cauldron now," she told Hermione, heading off the imminent argument Hermione had opened her mouth to start. "then straight to the apothecary, Scribbulus' and Wiseacre's Wizarding Equipment. Then a wand and _then_ I can leave you in the capable hands of your parents to explore the wonders of Flourish and Blotts."

Hermione frowned as she closed her mouth, but soon lapsed back into the steady stream of questions she had that pertained to the magical world as she and Professor McGonagall started off to a store that had cauldrons of all shapes and sizes piled outside.

Mrs. Granger silently protested that she didn't think they were capable enough, as she already had enough on her mind thank you very much, but her husband had already followed the two witches up the highstreet and she hurried to catch up.

Four shops and countless amounts of wizarding equipment later the group of four entered Ollivanders, the wand shop. The noise from the street was dampened almost immediately as they entered and even Hermione's constant babble dropped off as they stepped inside. A man with pure white hair and large eyes looked up from the desk in the middle of the shop and smiled at them.

"Ah! Professor Minerva McGonagall! I do believe your wand was nine and a half inches, fir, with a dragon heartstring core, yes? Quite stiff, but with an excellent aptitude for Transfiguration."

"Correct as always, Mr. Ollivander," Professor McGonagall said, inclining her head to the man.

"And who are you young miss?"

"Hermione Granger, sir," she said, looking nervous for the first time since entering the alley.

"Well Miss Granger, let's get you a wand then. Which is your dominant hand?"

And so the process began. Mrs. Granger stared along with her husband as the tape measure moved on it's own to mesure various parts of their daughter's anatomy. Hermione, on the other hand, was quivering with excitement. Mr. Ollivander dismissed the tape measure with a clap of his hands and removed a wand from a box he had placed on the front desk.

"Here you are: eleven inches, made out of apple wood with a dragon heartstring core."

Hermione took it reverently and waved it through the air a bit, but Mr. Ollivander took it back almost immediately.

"No, no! Close, but not quite right-"

He examined the other boxes he had pulled out and chose one of them.

"Ten inches, cedar with dragon heartstring, rather sturdy," Mr. Ollivander said, but pulled it away just as Hermione was about to grab it.

"No, not right at all! It must be-"

He grabbed another box off the desk and opened it, revealing a light-colored wand with vines wending their ways up and around it. "Vine and dragon heartstring, ten and three-quarter inches. Not compliant, but strong."

Hermione waved the wand and a flurry of deep green and brown sparks showered her, drawing an amazed gasp from her and her parents.

"That'll be eight galleons and three knuts," Mr. Ollivander said, wrapping the wand up carefully.

Mrs. Granger smiled sadly at the look of awe on her daughter's face. Despite the new culture and the strangeness of the new world they had discovered, she was proud of her daughter. And Mrs. Jane Granger would support her as much as possible, even if it was a bit much for a simple muggle dentist to comprehend.

* * *

A/N: So just a cute little oneshot, written for FanFiction, School of Imagination, Business Studies Assessment 1 - Character. Hope you enjoy! Please leave a review to tell me what you thought of it! I admittedly felt it was a bit rushed, but then I always have trouble sticking with a word limit... :P Oh well, tell me what you thought anyway! ;) Hope you have a wonderful rest of your day!


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